Both sides appear to have dug in, with Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million insisting that books be available in all formats to all customers — specifically, their customers and their e-reader — and DC and parent company Warner Bros. insisting they’re misunderstood, and more than a little disappointed.

There are hints, however, that behind the scenes things may be a bit less … concrete.

In its overview of the dispute, The New York Times notes the DC website trumpets the books are available “exclusively to Amazon’s newly announced Kindle Fire,” period. No qualifiers. But comments for DC Co-Publisher Jim Lee lend credence to reports that the Amazon exclusivity is for a limited time.

Although he cited a nondisclosure agreement with the online retail giant, Lee still told the newspaper that, “Just because we’re starting with Amazon, this is not the be-all and end-all of our digital strategy and distribution.”

And to DC readers frustrated by the deal? “We say to our fans, have a little patience.”

Ian

Lee

Well I feel royally screwed by the fact justice league is 3.99 on Comixology and only 22 pages, forget the draw the line gimmick. Though I read on a blog that the print version had extra content. Which pisses me off more

CagedLeo730

Draw the line was always about $2.99 for 20 pages. They haven’t gone against that. The 4 #3.99 books have 28 pages of “content”. You may not like the art sketches & dialogue pages (in JL & Action) but it’s still content. They’ll have backups pretty soon anyways.

Ian

No, as Lee said, the digital version of Justice League had no bonus content. The also said that the higher price points would be reserved for special cases, not every issue of the two titles they thought would sell the most.